chuunibyou demo duel ga shitai
by Xephonia
Summary: AU where everyone has chuunibyou, i.e. they all just imagine their magical/alien powers.


They turn off all the lights in Yuuma's attic, pull the curtains over the windows and now all that illuminates the room is Yuuma's barely functioning flashlight that they put a red scarf over so the light is red.

(Yuuma himself is down below in his bedroom with the Barians and the Arclights.)

Thomas hastily fixes the fake tattoo on his eye and tries to not laugh as Ryouga rubs his eye for the seventh time that day.

"Don't laugh, it's because I'm a Barian!" Ryouga hisses and finally gets his red contact lens in the right position.

They pick up their handmade duel disks — already slightly broken from all the jumping and running they've done — and get ready.

"Duel!"

* * *

"This is the abyss of chaos that humans will never reach!" Ryouga shouts, and he coughs because it's hard to breathe when you're not used to wearing a skintight bodysuit that covers your mouth and nose. "Everyone, go! Barian Chaos Draw!"

From below, they hear the other Barians shouting "Draw!" and randomly drawing a card from their decks. (The timing is off)

Suddenly, Ryouga's expression goes blank.

"...Yeah?" Thomas raises an eyebrow.

There's silence, then they hear how some of the Barians just use Barian's Force or don't Rank-Up at all, and there's Vector who shouts "Nasch, your magic wasn't enough! You're lame!" and Yuuma who hits him and challenges him to a duel, just to get stopped by Chris who says it's not _the time_.

("When is it _the time_?", asks Yuuma. Astral sighs. "When most of your comrades have fallen, you will awaken." Yuuma is quiet after that.)

"...My anger isn't enough yet," Ryouga mutters and ends his turn.

Thomas pointedly turns around, facing the wall. Ryouga swaps the top card of his deck with Rank Up Magic - The Seventh One.

"Have you stopped making such a shameful face, Ryouga?!" Thomas now shouts, and Ryouga says, "I'm Nasch!" which Thomas takes a reason to turn back around.

One of Thomas' dolls falls over then, and he quickly fixes it back up.

"Even your monsters don't believe in you, IV!" Ryouga shouts, and he laughs in a way he thinks sounds evil and condescending (or "like a giant loser" if you're asking Rio) and tries to not lose his cape again (that happened a lot today; the blue cape in the dramatic flashbacks was a lot easier to wear than the red one he has now).

Thomas draws, scowls, says something about how he can't reach Ryouga yet and ends his turn.

"But now!" Ryouga shouts. "BARIAN CHAOS DRAW!"

This time, everyone gets it done, but Haruto telling Kaito to come home so they can prepare the moon stage for his showdown with Mizael - "It's not a stage!", protests Kaito - ruins the mood anyway.

There's a break in which Kotori comes up to hand each of them a drink since they've been shouting so much all day. Ryouga gets water, since that's the only thing you can drink through a bodysuit without leaving stains.

"Is there no one who can keep their delusions in check here?" Kotori sighs and sees Rio who is looking for eyedrops she can use for her scene with Tetsuo. "Oh, Rio-san! You're still playing with them?"

"Ryouga would probably think I joined the Astral World's side or something and proceed to have an internal crisis. And since we have finals in a month... I might as well play along and get it over with."

They hear Ryouga shouting as he trips over his cape again, and they laugh.

* * *

"Show yourself, Chaos Numbers 101! Guardian of..." Ryouga scowls and pulls out a piece of paper. "Guardian of unappeased souls, become the dark knight and crush the light! Silent Honor's Dark Knight!"

He reacts too late when Rio throws a black plush teddy bear at him, so it hits him and he scowls, setting the teddy bear in front of him and giving it a proud look.

Thomas fixes his tattoo again.

* * *

Finally, all the duels are over. Everyone is 'alive' again, Haruto doesn't have to dress up as 'Tron' anymore, Rio doesn't have to pretend to be Merag anymore (mostly, anyway) and their siblings' weird Chuunibyou-induced cosplay adventure has come to an end. More or less, anyway, since the others just stopped the cosplay part of it.

Michael sighs as he watches Thomas and Chris go on about their hard fights and how it's great they are alive again. "I thought only middle schoolers have Chuunibyou."

"Some don't grow out of it," Gilag— who still wonders why everyone had to steal his and Alit's cool Big Dipper-based nickname idea— says, and he smiles dreamily at his autograph from Chouno Sanagi.

Haruto grins. "You were only in it for Sanagi-chan and Alit, weren't you?"

"Yeah. Are the others serious about this?"

"I'm pretty sure my brother still thinks he's an alien." Rio takes out her red contact lens and chuckles.

Haruto holds up a wooden sword that was painted dark blue. "I think nii-san is still convinced that he was chosen by some kind of dragon god, too. I don't really know the story details, that's why I chained Yuuma that one time back in the WDC."

"So they don't set the ground on fire with all the candles for the magma field?" Kotori chuckles.

"Yeah."

Ryouga suddenly rips the door open, wearing a red contact lens. "There's a new threat to Astral World! Come, Gilag, Merag!"

"...oh god, not again."


End file.
